It was to address the psychological trauma, then newly labeled as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD], that haunted him and to help him "grieve" that much of his life had been blown away along with his face.

Gob Woodhull, an imaginary son of the real 19th-century feminist, spiritualist and free-love advocate Victoria Woodhull, loses his twin brother in the Civil War and builds a vast and elaborate machine whose purpose is to "grieve" so efficiently that it will bring all of history's dead back to life.